What’s Really Outrageous About Cuomo’s Abortion Remarks

Last Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that “extreme conservatives who are right-to-life” have “no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.”

This was not a very nice thing to say, as many people quickly pointed out. (Set aside the fact that many pro-life people are far from being conservatives, let alone extreme ones.) But incivility from civil officials is not, I think, the greatest problem. That lies elsewhere.

Cuomo says pro-life people aren’t welcome in New York. What he really means is that the unborn aren’t welcome. This is the real outrage, one not tied to the controversy of the week but grinding on day after day, year after year.

This Monday Cuomo backtracked on his comments, saying he “respects” the views of the pro-life. All well and good. I’m happy to once again be welcome where I live. But what about the thousands whose lives are cut short with official sanction, and often with official encouragement?

One in three children in New York state never sees life outside the womb. In 2011, 102,678 children were legally murdered under the governorship of Governor Cuomo. Meanwhile, forty percent of all pregnancies in New York City end in the violence of abortion.

Cuomo can think whatever he wants of the pro-life as far as I’m concerned. What is intolerable is his refusal to welcome the weakest.